One Piece: Journey of Gluttony
by Osiris1695
Summary: Jewelry Bonney, a rookie pirate aiming to be King, goes through experiences that have her join the crew of Monkey D. Luffy. Why does the World Government want to find Bonney so much? Why is a Celestial Dragon obsessed with her? Will Luffy stand by her in the face of the entire world? And how will Bonney deal with a captain who's far too kind and innocent for his own good?
1. Unexpected King of the Pirates?

**I noticed while surfing FF that Bonney and Luffy were a rare pairing, so I decided to take on the challenge of writing what would happen if she was his first crewmate. And who knows, some of the other supernovas might make it in as surprise crewmates as well. Unfortunately, Robin won't be a part of the crew because Bonney already has wanted by the WG covered. Anyways, this was my first story and I just wanted to try a hand at this, so give me your feedback.**

 **Chapter 1: Unexpected King of the Pirates?**

It was a beautiful day out in the East Blue, birds were flying along, the weather was nice and the water was beautiful. All standards were met for a wonderful day for everyone, except Jewelry Bonney.

Growl. "Shut up, I know." The new rookie was in the worst predicament of her life, all the food on her tiny boat – ship – she corrected, had run out.

"Dammit, I really should've brought another 6 months' worth of food with me." She muttered, laying against the side of her boat and looking out into the horizon. Bonney's sulking was interrupted by a crate that floated it's way next to her boat.

She blinked. "Must've been cargo from one poor bastard caught in that whirlpool." Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Bonney grinned and reached over to grab it. She wasted no time and almost tore it apart.

She stared at it's contents. Sake. Not food. But sake. Bonney silently threw the now useless box back into the water before going back to her sulking. "What did I do to deserve this?! I just wanted a pizza… Or three… Actually, maybe four." But she had no time to keep count of how much food she wanted before she noticed a ship on the horizon coming towards her. Huh. A savior at last. Grinning to herself, she started to put her plan into action.

* * *

"I hope everything is in order for my trip, _Petty_ Officer."

The officer bit her lip in response, feeling the emphasis on the word 'Petty', before forcing a smile and replying, "Please don't worry yourself, we will do our best to adequately serve you."

There was a knock on the door to the cabin they were in, and a flippant gesture from the other party for her to get out to get it.

Moving to the door, she opened it and was greeted by a saluting marine in her face. "Officer Tashigi, do you know where Captain Smoker is? There's a child who looks to be unconscious on a small boat and we need help deciding whether or not to take her in."

Tashigi blinks at the onslaught of information before nodding and giving her reply, "I'll give him this information, thank you." The marine saluted again before going back to his duty.

It was a small walk over to the bow of the ship where she found the aptly named Captain Smoker, smoking while looking out to the horizon. She approached him and cleared her throat, "Captain, we found a small girl on a boat that looks to be adrift."

The captain appears to give it little thought before saying, "I'm sure that damn Celestial Dragon won't like this, but we can't leave this girl. Bring her up!"

* * *

Back on Bonney's boat, she feels it being pulled up by the much larger ship. 'Jackpot.', she thought to herself. All she had to do was just use her devil fruit to turn her appearance into a small child and they'd all eat it up, she grinned to herself, 'I'm a hell of a genius.'

When the boat got close enough to the railing, Tashigi grabbed the small girl and dragged her onto the ship. She then splashed some water on Bonney's face to wake her up, causing her to spring up while sputtering. "Sorry about that, I just didn't know how to wake you up." Tashigi smiled sheepishly.

Bonney bit back a scathing reply and settled for smiling, "Oh, it's alright. I was just surprised, but um… Where are w-…" Bonney was halted in the middle of her speech as she saw a scene she would've never imagined seeing.

A human was walking on all four of his limbs, with a collar around his neck while another person was riding on their back. She realized that she was looking at an actual human _slave_ , Bonney slowly took in the appearance of the heartless bastard enslaving the human.

The man was wearing a full-body, thick white suit with a bubble coming out of it surrounding his head. She's brought out of taking in his appearance when he speaks, "What's this commotion? And who's this?"

Bonney, not quite sure she was able to form a reply to him, was saved by Tashigi answering in her stead, "We found her unconscious on this boat and we decided to bring her up."

"I see, I see… Well, I want her as my slave!" He exclaimed, looking at her with a depraved grin. Bonney froze, with only one word lingering in her mind: Slave. Slave. _Slave._

She would be subjected to the horrors that the person beneath him was facing, she would be forced to do whatever he asked of her and worst of all, it's possible she would never be able to escape.

A million thoughts racing through her head, she almost missed his command for the marines to grab her. Acting quickly, she slapped both of them with her hands. The two marines stared at her as they thought she was becoming larger, "Is it just me or is she getting bigger?" While the other marines stared on as the two men standing before them, had turned back into small boys.

Tashigi, who now had went to stand next to Smoker, was confused as to what happened until she heard him ask Bonney, "You're a Devil Fruit user, aren't you?", Bonney wasted no time to reply as she surveyed her situation.

She looked towards her boat, only to see a sea of marines standing between her and the only savior she had in this situation. So, she did the only thing she could do and ran to the opposite side to see if there was something she could do there. Bonney surveyed the sea with her eyes and found the only thing that would save her from this situation: A lone barrel drifting along the sea.

The only downside? If she missed the barrel, she'd drown to death. Though, to her right now, death seemed a lot better than slavery. She took a deep breath and resigned herself to her fate. Seconds later, she jumped and the only thing she could remember after was the wind being knocked out of her as her stomach made contact with the barrel.

* * *

Smoker stared at the drifting barrel, sighing in relief as the girl got away before looking back at the Celestial Dragon. 'Tch, I don't like being a lap dog to _them_ but it's still too early for me to change anything.'

The Celestial Dragon in question was seething in anger as he barked, "I want an only alive wanted poster of her. No one escapes from me!"

"B-But we don't even have a picture of her…" One of the previously shrunken marines, who now regained their full sizes, timidly remarked. He fell down in pain as a shot rang out from the Celestial Dragon's pistol. "Well, yoo'll just have to fix that."

Tashigi ran to the marine's side and looked at his wound, she looked over to Smoker who nodded for her to take him. Tashigi motioned for two other marines to come help her carry the wounded marine.

* * *

Bonney opened her eyes slowly and found herself staring at stars. Huh. It was night already? She turned her head to the side and saw sand as well as that barrel she escaped on. "Looks like I was lucky and this barrel hit an island, well, stranded is way damn better than dead or enslaved." Bonney mused.

Her attention was brought back to the barrel when she saw it shaking. She blinked, confused if this was real or if she was just hallucinating. It shook again, and now something was pounding inside it. Moments later, the box was nearly shattered as a boy popped out of the box. "Shishishi, I slept great!" was the only exclamation she heard from him, and she couldn't understand how that would bring him into the barrel.

Though what she could do was take in his appearance, from the back all she could see was that he had raven hair and was wearing a red sleeveless vest and shorts. But the most unique thing in his appearance was the straw hat that was resting on his head. Bonney mused that he looked like a fighter, given the scar under his eye… Wait a minute, when did he turn around and start looking at her?

"Why are you laying down like that on the beach and staring at me? You're weird!" Bonney's eye twitched at his remark and barked out a reply before she could stop herself, "You're calling me weird after bursting out of a barrel?!"

"Oh, good point." He laughed and then continued, "So, weird lady, what're you doin' laying down like that on the beach?"

Bonney twitched again. "My name's not "weird lady", it's Jewelry Bonney, dammit! And I'm not laying here for the fun of it, I just jumped on your barrel when I was escaping from the marines and we ended up here!"

"You escaped from the marines?! Awesome!" Bonney blinked at the unexpected excitement towards her earlier escapade, before grinning and replying, "Damn right! It's gotta be awesome if I'm involved."

"Hey, hey, Bonney?" The girl was brought out of her moment of boasting when she heard the male teen up in her face and talking to her. "Haven't you heard of a thing called personal space?!" Bonney shoved him away slightly before continuing "Whaddya want?"

Not being slightly affected, he laughs again and his grin gets even wider if that was possible. "Join my crew!"

…She blinks. Once. Then twice.

"No." She curtly answers.

"Ehhh?! Why not?!" The male teen whines.

"Well for one, I don't even know who the hell you are! And secondly-" She's cut off from making her second point when his voice cuts in. "Oh, why didn't you say so earlier? My name's Monkey D. Luffy and I'm the man who'll be King of the Pirates!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that if I was you." She starts, given perfect setup to make her second point.

"Eh? Why not?" His confusion is evident on his face, as he stares owlishly at her.

Bonney grins as she gives out her answer, "Because _I_ 'll be the one who becomes King of the Pirates."

 **TO BE CONTINUED.**

* * *

 **Well, that was the first chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope it wasn't too bad. Also, before anyone thinks of it, no, the "yoo" in the Celestial Dragon's speech is not a typo that's just the way he talks. Kudos to whoever will know who it is, it's pretty obvious though even if I never gave his name.**


	2. Forced Alliance!

**I don't particularly like long ANs, in fact I'll probably just use them to answer questions or concerns in the reviews. So I'll just keep this short and sweet so we can get on to the regularly scheduled chapter.**

 **So, while reading the reviews I came across two things that I actually wanted to talk about: What role the supernovas would play, and an update schedule. For the first, I'm still not quite sure what to do about them, since their characterization and how they use their abilities is relatively under wraps (save for Law and Kidd), so if some of them will be part of the crew it'll probably be late in the journey just so I have time to think about it.**

 **As for the second, right now I'm writing and uploading whenever I can which would probably be daily, yeah, I'm hyped for my first story, don't blame me. But if I start slowing down, then I'd probably put a schedule of** _ **at least**_ **one chapter per week. Hopefully I won't end up straying from that schedule, but things happen in life. Anyways, that was it and on with the chapter.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Forced Alliance? Bonney's Sudden Bounty!**

Bonney was sore, _very sore_. She was currently walking through the marketplace in the village that was unfortunately on the other side of the island, which took her multiple hours to reach. So yeah, to say she was sore was the understatement of the century. Trying to take her mind off of the pain currently spreading through her feet, Bonney's purple orbs scanned through her surroundings, aiming to find anyone who might be selling a ship for her to take away from this island and go back to what she was doing.

At that thought, she dug her hands into her pockets to find out if she even had enough money to afford a makeshift raft. After a few seconds of struggling against her unnaturally cramped pockets, it dawned on her. She was flat broke. And sore. And tired. And worst of all? She was _hungry_. 'I've had bad days in my life, but this is the shittiest day I've ever had.'

She was brought out of her sulking when she heard a sudden voice talking next to her, asking her the same question she was asked hours ago.

"Join my crew?" She almost forgot he was there.

Biting back a fiery retort, she just responded with a curt no.

"Join my crew?"

"That's still a no."

"My crew join?"

Pausing for a moment to register the jumbled order of the sentence, she decided to jumble one of her own. "No that is."

He looked like he was about to ask again before he was interrupted with a sound and feeling that reminded Bonney of her hunger. Except that it was much louder than she expected her stomach would make. She felt her cheeks warm and turned to her companion, preparing to warn him to never speak of that happening ever again, only she realized that he wasn't paying any attention to her and was instead rubbing at his own stomach.

"Man, I'm reaaally hungry." Bonney could see him deflate and she felt a twinge of sympathy, knowing his pain. Her orbs settled on an apple vendor while the gears in her head started to turn. It wasn't her beloved pizza but it would have to do, she grinned and turned to her companion. "Don't move from here, I got an idea that'll land us something to eat."

Luffy shot her a look of confusion. "What're you gonna do?" Her grin only widened at his confusion, "Don't worry, you're about to see a hell of a genius at work." And with that statement in the air, she dashed towards the apple vendor. From his position, Luffy could see the vendor putting an unhealthy number of apples in the paper bag. And before the man had a chance to react, the paper bag was swiped from his hand by the pink haired girl, who took off running into a nearby alleyway. Luffy continued looking on as the man gave chase and ran straight through the alleyway.

Luffy considered moving to help her if she didn't manage to escape, but he was cut off by a girl who looked disarmingly similar to Bonney except she didn't look older than twelve years old approaching him while holding a paper bag. He tilted his head and voiced his one single thought, "Huh? Who're you?"

The girl smacked him on the head. "That's not how you thank the person that saved you from starving to death, dammit!" Luffy blankly stared for a few moments before his eyes light up in realization, "Are you Bonney's twin sister? Did she give you the apples while running away?"

Bonney started laughing, "I _am_ Bonney, you dumbass!" was all she could manage to get out between her fits of laughing. After she calmed down and realized he was still confused, she decided to clear up his confusion. "I ate a devil fruit that lets me manipulate the ages of anyone."

Bonney could swear on her life that she saw his eyes sparkling as he exclaimed, "That's awesome!" The girl felt her cheeks warming, but she pushed the feeling down. She needed to remind herself that she was only stuck with him until she found a way off the island. Opening the paper bag, she wolfed down a few apples before holding out the bag Luffy's way.

Bonney thought he was going to take one apple, or three at most. It became apparent that she was wrong as she felt the weight in her hand get significantly lighter. At first, she thought he was clumsy and spilled them on the floor but after looking around his feet, she realized that wasn't the case.

Bonney tested out her hypothesis and tentatively asked, "Did you just… eat half of them in one bite?" Her fears were confirmed when Luffy gave her a short and sweet answer.

"Yup! Shishishi." Great.

She just _had_ to meet a person that had an appetite as big as hers. Fearing for the rest of the apples, she immediately retracted her arm back to her side and started stuffing the rest of them in her mouth. From the corner of her eye, Bonney could see him looking at her while grinning.

Taking a moment from stuffing herself full of apples, she turned her face to him. "What?"

He stared at her for a few more seconds before elaborating on the reason for his stare, "Bonney's weird." To say Bonney felt insulted was nothing short of an understatement, did this guy not know how to deal with beautiful young women such as herself?

But before Bonney could find a chance to express her annoyance, she saw the familiar face of the vendor she stole from accompanied by a marine walking by his side. She could hear the vendor exclaim, "She was there one moment and then she was gone!" Bonney finished the remainder of her apples while smirking. There was no way he'd think the young woman who stole from him turned into this little girl.

Bonney became curious when the marine took out a transponder snail and started talking into it, she looked around to see if she could find out exactly what he was reporting on but came with no results. Deciding to let it go, Bonney walked along with her companion without a hitch. She was in the middle of mulling over another idea to get more food until a hand shot out to stop her.

Bonney turned her head to her raven-haired companion in confusion, "Luffy, what are you doing?" After getting no reply except for him staring straight ahead, she craned her head to look in the same direction.

 **Click!**

She faintly heard the sound of a camera shutter, but that was the least of her worries. More marines than she could count were blocking their way. She almost didn't register Luffy's loud voice next to her, "What do you want with Bonney?!"

The marine in front of her, who she could only gleam as their leader, decided to answer Luffy. "Your friend here is under arrest." He elaborated no further, however, as he marched with the remaining marines to her position.

Bonney was attempting to get her thoughts under control and figure out how to escape this gloomy situation. But any further thoughts were cut off when she was spun to face Luffy, "Oi Bonney, do you trust me?"

"Wha? Hell no! I just met you a few hours ago!" And what the hell was he doing asking her questions like that in this kinda situation?!

"You can either trust me or you'll be arrested here. Shishishi." Luffy elaborated his question, with a grin. And here she was thinking he was actually innocent, the kid was evil! Swallowing her apprehension, she thought it was better to trust him to do something than get caught. "I'll trust you this once, dammit. But you better not think of betraying me."

Bonney had tried to gleam a reaction from his eyes after agreeing to his proposition, but the fact that he had moved his head so that the straw hat he was wearing covered his eyes prevented her. She was about to ask what his plan was when she felt something _literally wrap around her waist._ Looking down, she certainly didn't expect to see that his arm had actually extended and wrapped around her. It had dawned on her that he was also Devil Fruit eater.

Turning her head to look at the marines, she saw them approaching rather quickly and started to panic. What if they got to her before Luffy did anything? What if Luffy tricked her and was working with the marines? And why was the ground getting farther? Wait… The ground was getting farther? It took her a moment to realize that she and Luffy were flying, and it also took her a moment to realize she was screaming.

Over the sound of the wind and her screaming, she faintly heard Luffy yelling, "Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" Too worried about the landing to take in the sights around her, Bonney got as close as she could to her companion to ask him if he had any plans for landing. His only response to her was laughing and telling her not to worry.

Soon, after almost half a second of flying, Bonney could feel the merciless tug of gravity pulling them down. And then it was hard _not to worry._ She felt her body be adjusted to be laying over his torso as she heard him prepare for landing, "Gomu Gomu no Balloon!" And then suddenly there was something inflating against her back, something akin to a balloon, the simple naming would've amused her if she wasn't in danger of dying at twenty-two years old due to terrible lifestyle choices and trusting a sketchy teen. She closed her eyes and hoped to whatever God there was in the sky to spare her.

She couldn't see anything through her closed eyes, but she felt something ripple against her back and realized that Luffy must've made contact with the ground. Her hypothesis was confirmed when she felt his body shrinking back to his normal size. Bonney turned her body around to take a look at what happened to Luffy, only to find him unharmed and grinning at her, "Gomu Gomu no Crash Landing."

She found herself returning his grin and muttering a small thank you, he deserved at least that much for saving her. Deciding she had enough body contact with the teen, she rolled off his torso and looked around, she found that she was surrounded by trees. She turned to Luffy and decided to voice her complaints, "I know you saved me and all, and thank you for that. But couldn't you have aimed for a better place?"

Luffy tilted his head at her, "But this is the perfect place for us to get off this island." Come again? How exactly was this place going to help them? Bonney kneeled down to Luffy's eyelevel, "And _how_ exactly is this place going to help us get off this island?" Luffy laughed in response, and she huffed, was he laughing at her? How dare he laugh at her?

She was definitely not prepared for Luffy's next statement, and had she been in any other situation, she would've definitely gave him a good punch or two for wasting her time before walking away.

"I'll help you get off this island with me… But only if you join my crew."

She found herself compelled to agree, if _only_ to escape this island… Yep, just escaping the island. It had nothing to do with how she couldn't bring herself to tell him no after saving her life from those marines. It was definitely just manipulation.

"Alright, fine! You're a real pain in the ass, you know that?" She could hear him just give his signature laugh in the background. She just shook her head in response.

* * *

 _Meanwhile, in a bar at another island in the East Blue._

A man walks into the bar and goes up to the bartender. "Business sure is slow today, ain't it?"

The bartender looks back to acknowledge the man's presence and goes back to pouring a drink, he tries and fails to keep the contempt out of his voice as he replies. "Most of our customers are pirates, and they won't come if _he_ 's here."

They're interrupted by another man kicking open the doors to the pub and entering, the bartender looks behind him and freezes as he takes in his appearance.

The unknown man had tanned skin and was quite muscular, he was wearing a white plain shirt, with a black bandana tied around his left bicep, and black pants that were tucked into his boots. Though his most defining features were his cropped green hair, and three swords on his right hip, bundled up with a green haramaki over his waist. The man goes over and sits on one of the tables, yelling his order over to the bartender. "I want as much sake as you can get me."

* * *

Bonney blinked at her Captain's, she insists it's only temporary, idea. A makeshift raft was waiting for her as she approached the beach, which aside from looking like it'd fall apart if it even went around a rainstorm, looked actually kind of seaworthy. She turned her head to look at Luffy, who looked more like a child proud after making his first sand castle. Bonney found that she couldn't help but smile at his innocent expression, but she turned her head back to look at the raft when he turned to speak to her, "You ready for our adventure to find the One Piece, Bonney?"

The girl in question found herself answering before she had any chance to process the words coming out of her mouth. "Definitely." Once her mind caught up with her mouth, it was already too late to take anything back. She felt that she was digging herself in deeper, but it didn't matter. She'd deal with the consequences as it came, she was always a "go with the flow" type of girl. Realizing that Luffy was looking at her expectantly, she nodded to him and they both jumped on the raft. Was it a good sign that the raft was already wobbling from them getting on? Hell no. But it was already too late to go back to the drawing board as the raft kept moving away from the island.

* * *

The unknown man had finished tenth bottle of sake and placed it aside before someone sat across from him, he looked up at the newcomer and smirked. "What do you have for me now, Johnny?"

The man in question was tanned as well, with a tattoo that was on his right cheek. He was wearing a blue hooded jacket with a purple undershirt over his tan pants and boots. He took off his sunglasses and placed them on the table, using his other hand to slide a wanted poster over to the green-haired man. "It's a good catch, pretty much came out today. It's an easy pay-out of 12 million berries, and on the plus side, it doesn't have to get messy."

The three-sword wielder's brown orbs settled on the wanted poster of what appeared to be a girl with long pink hair, his attention was taken however by the writing underneath the picture of the girl: ONLY ALIVE. So that's what Johnny meant by what he said.

"So, what do you say, Zoro?" The man in question, Zoro, looked up to see his partner waiting for his answer expectantly. In response, Zoro smirked, "I did need new swords… And I could do with more sake." Johnny nodded, putting on his sunglasses and leaving the bar to make preparations for their new hunt.

Zoro grinned to himself, "This Bonney girl better be a good fighter, I'd hate for a 12 million bounty to disappoint me, especially when I've been itching for a fight."

* * *

 **TO BE CONTINUED**

 **Well, that's the second chapter done. A lot more Bonney and Luffy focused than the first and maybe I made it too much? But I hope it works. And it looks like Zoro's first meeting with Luffy will be a lot more heated now that he's after Bonney's bounty. Now, you might believe this to be insane, but I spent more time than I expected trying to decide on Bonney's eye color since in the manga she has brown eyes but, in the anime, she has purple eyes. I decided on purple because I thought it fit her look more and most people are familiar with the anime.**


	3. Luffy vs Zoro! Duel for Bonney!

**It's the time you've probably(?) been waiting for, a new chapter!**

 **Steam Powered Crow: True. Robin is an essential part of reaching Raftel, and she will play a major role in the story. I've thought about it some more and she** _ **might**_ **end up joining the crew but if she does, it'll probably be after Enies Lobby just so that arc doesn't feel cluttered. This might change however, if I get any better ideas.**

 **Anyway, that's it for the notes this time, I'll get on with the chapter.**

 **Chapter 3: Luffy vs. Zoro, The Duel to Save Bonney**

Bonney was _really_ regretting her life choices because as it turns out, her temporary Captain had no idea how to navigate to save his life. And Bonney, not being aware of this fact, entrusted most of the sailing to him. She now knows it was a bad idea but that was after Luffy had sailed them straight into a storm, thankfully they were lucky and ended up getting beached before the raft gave way and they drowned to death.

And that was the story of how the dysfunctional crew had ended up stranded on _another_ island in just _two days._ Bonney groaned, "I should've never done this." Luffy pouted at her remark.

"Oi Bonney, it's not that bad. We can just find a ship on this island." The pink-haired girl felt anger levels reaching dangerous levels. She paused and took a deep breath. "And how exactly are we going to get a ship if we don't have any money to afford it?" Bonney had mustered the sweetest voice she could use to try and explain their problem to her pouting captain.

"Oh, that's right. We need money. Shishishi!" Bonney lifted her hand to her forehead in exasperation, how could he make jokes after putting her in this situation? The girl, an idea coming to her, suddenly shot up and started dragging her captain to the nearby town.

"Ehh? What're you draggin' me for, Bonney?" Luffy whined to the girl, who kept her head facing forward. "Well, we're pirates, aren't we? We just have to steal some poor sap's money… And boom! New ship.", Luffy's face had lit up in understanding after her explanation.

"I get it! You sure are smart, Bonney." The girl felt her cheeks heating up at his unfiltered compliment but admonished herself before getting too happy. She reminded herself that he was only her captain until she found a way to become independent. She had to not get attached to him.

The walk until they reached the town was relatively quiet. And when they actually reached it, Bonney was surprised to see that the town was actually almost entirely deserted, save for a few salesmen that she could count on her two hands. The purple-eyed girl felt a chill go down her spine while her eyes scanned the quiet town, and it also didn't help that Bonney could feel their every move being watched by someone.

* * *

Zoro was in the middle of drinking more sake, when Johnny suddenly rushed back into the bar while panting, "Aniki! You won't believe what I found!" The sword-wielder only raised a brow in return. "That girl… The one in the wanted poster… She's here on the island!" Zoro's eyes widened in surprise, but then narrowed again in suspicion. "This better not be like the time you told me that my bounty was in a swamp and the only thing I found was a forest."

' _That was you getting lost!'_ But Johnny wouldn't give voice to his thoughts, because even though the man had a terrible sense of direction, Johnny had still respected him. He only shook his head in response, "I can take you to her right now!"

Zoro tightened his grip on his sword and slammed down the payment for the sake. "Then let's go. If we stay here talking all day, the bounty will escape."

* * *

Bonney was about to cry from frustration as all her hopes of finding anyone to steal from were being shattered right in front of her eyes. She and Luffy had been walking around for a good half an hour but they still couldn't find anything. It didn't help that there were only a few people here in this town. She was in the middle of looking around, desperate for a victim to steal from when she caught a pair standing in their way out of the corner of her eyes.

Her purple orbs light up in recognition, while Luffy stares blankly at them. "Do you know these people, Bonney?" She turns to Luffy in exasperation, "You mean you have no idea who he is?" The only response she got was her raven-haired companion picking at his nose. She resisted the urge to slap his hand away, "That green-haired guy is the Pirate Hunter, Roronoa Zoro."

Luffy paused in his nose picking to register her words, "Pirate Hunter? You mean he's here to hunt us?" Bonney was confused, that couldn't be right. They hadn't even done anything yet. Surely they didn't have a bounty yet. Bonney had started straining to remember anything she might've done, but she was cut off by seeing the Pirate Hunter raise a wanted poster while smirking. The sight had made her eyes widen, she actually _had_ a wanted poster and for twelve _million_ berries no less!

"I'm here to collect the bounty on you… Bonney." Bonney felt her throat go dry at the words, looking at him as he wrapped the bandana around his head and placing the handle of one sword in his mouth while holding another sword in each hand. Her view is blocked off by red taking over most of her vision. Bonney blinked, did she get stabbed? No, she didn't feel any pain. Looking up, she saw Luffy's familiar straw hat.

"Oi, Pirate Hunter. I don't care who you are or how strong you might be, but I won't let you hurt my crewmate!" Bonney feels something flutter in her stomach at someone coming to her defense, but she quickly squashes it down.

Zoro's smirk had widened to a grin at Luffy's challenge. "If you really want to protect her, _Captain_ , then you'll just have to fight me." Bonney rolls out of the way as Luffy kicks off forward while extending his hand backwards. " _Gomu Gomu no… Pistol!_ " Luffy's attack is blocked by Zoro using the flat sides of his swords.

Bonney was in the middle of watching their fight, when she was brought back to reality by a sword slice aimed in her direction. She manages to duck under the attack delivered by Zoro's companion, Johnny. Bonney uses her low posture to kick him in the shin, sending him staggering. Taking advantage of his momentary confusion, Bonney jumps forward and gives him a slap across the face.

Johnny was about to retaliate with another slash when he felt a burning feeling spreading through his body and his sword getting heavier. He looked down and screamed in shock as he saw his now _tiny_ arms. When he looked back up at his opponent in shock, he found that she'd disappeared from her original position.

The last thing Johnny felt was a foot digging in the back of his skull as he was kicked into the wall of a nearby house. Bonney walked over, searching his body. "That guy was a damn pushover for being with the famed Pirate Hunter." Remembering Luffy's fight, she turned to look how he was doing.

 _Crash. Dodge. Slice._

 _Crash. Dodge. Slice._

To Bonney, it seemed like the two were engaged in an infinite dance that would begin by Luffy throwing an attack at Zoro, who would then dodge and try to slice Luffy. Luffy always managed to retract in time and throw another attack, which kept the loop going. The loop was eventually broken when Luffy started running towards Zoro, " _Gomu Gomu_ _no… Gatling!_ " His arms were moving at speeds fast enough that it looked like he'd grown multiple arms, but as Zoro was not intimidated and rushed into the barrage. Bonney had started to feel a sinking feeling in her stomach.

" _Santōryū…"_ Zoro blocked one of Luffy's arms with his sword and managed to deflect it for a moment, staggering the rubber boy for a bit before he brought it back to continue his attack. The green-haired swordsman continued to dodge and weave through Luffy's punches until it appeared that he was beside him.

" _Tōrō Nagashi!"_ Bonney's sinking feeling was right. While Zoro was beside Luffy, he had used the sword in his left hand to land a slash across Luffy's torso. The rubber teen jumped back and held his hand over the cut. "He's strong… I need to finish this quick." Luffy panted.

Luffy extended two of his arms back to prepare for another attack, " _Gomu Gomu no… Bazooka_!" As he sent his two arms forward, Zoro was prepared with an attack to slice his arms. " _Santōryū…"_

Zoro's eyes widened as he saw that Luffy changed his trajectory in the middle of it's flight path, bringing his arms crashing down instead. ' _I see. He decided to kick up some dust… Smart, but too bad it won't work against me.'_

" _Santōryū… Tatsumaki!"_ Zoro spun himself as well as his swords around, creating a tornado that dispelled the dust that Luffy kicked up. Looking back at his opponent, or… where his opponent should've been. Zoro felt two hands grabbing his shoulders from behind. He looked back and saw that Luffy was standing far away from him and had extended his arms to grab onto his shoulders.

" _Gomu Gomu no… Rocket!_ " Luffy had suddenly took off like a rocket towards Zoro. Bonney had looked on in confusion at Luffy's "winning" strategy when he used the bazooka but had grinned after piecing his plan together. ' _He may be an idiot in everything else, but damn, I didn't expect him to be such a good fighter.'_

Bonney's happiness at her Captain about to win the duel was short lived, as Zoro had also realized what Luffy was doing. ' _As I expected, he used the momentary confusion of the dust to put himself behind me… Smart, like I thought, but it still won't work against me.'_ Zoro grinned to himself at his worthy opponent, before he spun his sword handles to hold them backwards, inverting the direction of the blades.

Bonney had started running towards Zoro once she realized his plan to jab the swords behind him once Luffy was in close enough range. She should've been running. She should've ran as soon as she beat her opponent. It wasn't her problem, she should just leave him there.

 _So why was she running to help Luffy?_

" _Oi, Pirate Hunter. I don't care who you are or how strong you might be, but I won't let you hurt my crewmate!"_ As Luffy's earlier statement came to her mind, Bonney had found her determination to not let Luffy die increasing.

Bonney kept running forward in Zoro's direction. ' _I just need to get close enough to… touch him!'_ When she was in close enough proximity, she jumped towards Zoro.

' _I'll make you too weak to even hold those swords!'_ Extending her arm as far as it could go, Bonney's fingers had successfully made contact with one of Zoro's arms. Zoro, too focused on Luffy's attack, was surprised to feel contact on his arm as he looked towards Bonney. Spinning one sword handle back to it's normal direction, he was about to slash in her direction until he felt a burning sensation spread throughout his body. He felt his grip on his swords loosen as his body started to become weaker, he felt his shoulders begin to sag and his skin wilting. ' _That girl… She turned me into an old man!'_

Luffy was still sailing towards Zoro when he saw Bonney turn him into an old man, not wanting to collide with old man Zoro, Luffy stretched his feet into the ground and took his arms off of Zoro. Luffy was in the middle of skidding to a halt when he heard people coming out of their homes and talking animatedly about the Pirate Hunter's defeat. Looking over at Bonney, he saw her pull a rope out of... somewhere in her shirt?

* * *

 _A long celebration party, a fishing boat as a gift, and a tied up Zoro later._

Bonney and Luffy, along with a tied up Zoro, had set sail using a fishing boat they got as a gift for defeating Zoro. Bonney wasn't quite sure why the townspeople disliked Zoro so much and gave gifts to pirates of all people, but she wasn't going to complain. The purple-eyed girl was brought out of her thoughts as her orbs settled on Luffy, who came to sit across her. Specifically, her eyes settled on the bandages that covered the injury he received during the battle, her view unfiltered now that he had his red vest open. A wave of guilt washed over her when she remembered that this was her fault.

"Oi, Bonney… Why'd you jump in my fight with Zoro like that?" Bonney almost didn't hear Luffy's question.

"Because I thought you were going to _die_?" She articulated slowly, thinking she was missing something in his question.

Luffy was watching her with his owlish eyes, his expression more serious than she was used to from the rubber man. "Yeah, but that's still not a reason."

"How. Is. Thinking. You. Were. Going. To. Die. Not. A. Damn. Valid. Reason?!" Bonney had reached over and was shaking him with every word she said, trying to put some sense into him.

"Bonney. Stop. Gonna. Hurl!" Luffy's head was spinning after Bonney let go of him, not wanting to be covered in everything that he ate during the celebration. She regarded him in silence, waiting for him to regain his bearings and restart the conversation. "You could've been hurt, Bonney."

Bonney was ticked off; did he think she was just a damsel who'd wait and sit for someone else to save her?! "Yeah, so what?!"

Luffy tilted his head and looked at her with an expression of confusion, like his logic was the simplest thing to grasp. "Don't you remember? I told him that I wasn't going to let you get hurt and if you got hurt there… I would've broken my promise."

She remembered. In fact, those were the only words running through her head when she saved him. And they've still been repeating ever since. Her expression of annoyance had softened into a slight smile, "Idiot, if you were dead then you would never be able to keep that promise."

"Yeah, but there's some things I just have to deal with on my own. Fighting's the only thing I'm good at… And I'll never be able to fulfill the promise to Shanks if I can't kick people's ass all over the East Blue." Bonney giggled at the statement, he was just so serious at the start and he had to end it like that. Shaking her head, she processed the rest of his statement.

Wait.

Shanks? Red-Haired Shanks? _That_ Shanks?

"Luffy, that Shanks you were just talking about… Are you talking about Red-Haired Shanks?" Luffy looked at her for a moment and then eagerly nodded, "You know Shanks?"

"Who doesn't know Red-Haired Shanks, you dumbass?!" She only got a look of confusion in return, "Shanks is that popular?"

She shook her head in exasperation and took in a deep breath, nodding, "Shanks, along with Kaido, Big Mom and Whitebeard are the Four Emperors that basically control the second half of the Grand Line: The New World."

"The who controls the second half of what now?" Luffy blinked at her. She thought it was too much of a pain to explain it all, "Y'know what? Just forget about it for now."

"Okaay, if you say so, Bonney." It took her another moment to realize something else he said, "Wait, did you just say you made a promise to him?" Luffy nodded and made a noise of confirmation.

Bonney saw him take off his signature hat and gaze at it in reminiscence. "I promised him that I'd one day become a great pirate with a strong crew, a crew that I want to cherish and protect… And when that day comes, I'd return this hat in good condition. That's why this hat is my treasure." It all came to Bonney then, why he wanted to become King of the Pirates, why he wanted to prove himself against Zoro… And why he wanted to rely on himself in that fight.

Luffy put his hat back on and looked for a change in conversation. "That Zoro guy said you had a bounty on your head, what did you do?"

Bonney looked at the Pirate Hunter from the corner of her eye laying away from them. And while the man in question looked to be asleep, he was actually straining his ears to hear what they were saying.

She had actually thought about it all multiple times during the celebration where she came to a conclusion that was supported by the stipulation on the wanted poster of only being brought in alive. It only took her a few minutes to recount the whole tale of her encounter with the man that wanted to make her his slave to Luffy. By the end of her story, Luffy looked like he was about to rip someone's head off. "If we find that guy, you better tell me so I can kick his ass!" Bonney felt the same fluttery feeling that she did when Luffy came to her defense against Zoro.

It felt nice to be appreciated. To feel protected. To feel like she _belonged_ somewhere. She supposed it wouldn't hurt if she stuck around more to feel those emotions after being alone for so long.

The pair was interrupted when they heard movement coming from where they'd placed the tied up Zoro. The pair both turned to him and found that he sat up, looking at the floor of the fishing boat. Zoro cleared his throat, "I'm… ashamed. Ashamed to think that taking your bounty would've sent you to a hell of slavery… That's why… I'm prepared to do whatever you want right now!"

Bonney stared at him in shock and turned to Luffy. She couldn't grasp anything from his eyes as he stared at Zoro. The silence lasted a few more seconds with the tension still thick in the air, she saw a grin forming on Luffy's face. She knew that grin. She only knew one thing that would result from that grin.

"Okay! Join my crew!" Zoro paused and his eyes drifted over to Bonney, who only gave him a shrug. Zoro thought the both of them were insane, "I can't do that! What kind of Pirate Hunter joins pirates?!"

Luffy maintains his same grin as persuades, no, forces Zoro into accepting. "But you just said you'd do anything. If you go back on that, you'd break your code of honor twice. Shishishi!"

' _Damn it, this kid is evil!'_ Zoro thought in exasperation, as he saw no way out of it. Bonney turned towards Luffy, "How did you know he had a code of honor?" Luffy kept his eyes on Zoro as he replied to her. "If he was just a normal bounty hunter, he wouldn't have warned us when he was taking your bounty and it would've been easier to attack from behind us, but he didn't do that." Bonney was surprised that Luffy was this perceptive, he managed to find out all of that just from one encounter with the man?

"Fine, I accept." The pink-haired girl's attention is brought back to reality as Zoro sighed the words in defeat. She thought it was her cue to do her thing, so she got up and touched Zoro's head, before leaning down to untie him. Zoro felt the same burning sensation spread through his body as he felt his strength returning.

The now normal aged Zoro looked at his new crew, his eyes settling on Bonney's form, he thought she was too young to be a pirate but he didn't voice his complaints lest she turn him back into an old man, instead he voiced out another thought. "What are we going to do about her bounty?" Bonney looked at him for a moment, forgetting the fact that they'll be chased more because of her bounty. "Ugh, damn it. That'll be a huge problem."

"Couldn't you go back?" Zoro was confused as he listened to Luffy's statement, "Go back where?"

Luffy only tilted his head. "To her original form." Now Zoro was really confused, she had an original form?!

Bonney's face flushed. She had _completely forgotten_ all about that, she coughed and tried to salvage whatever pride she had left. "I was just about to say and do that!"

Her attempt to salvage her pride was ruined however when Zoro snickered at her attempt. "That does not look like the face of someone prepared to me."

"Shut up, dammit!"

Bonney had touched her arm, her body beginning to fill out as she started to retain her original form of a young woman. "And here I was thinking you looked too young to be a pirate." He just had to go and ruin it.

"I said shut up, swordbrain!"

"Like that'll happen, Cotton Candy!"

Luffy laughed at his crew's antics, moving ahead to the bow of their small boat to look over for any islands.

They had a long journey ahead of them.

 **TO BE CONTINUED.**

* * *

 **I feel like as I'm going along, my chapters keep increasing in length. I'm afraid one day I'll be typing out a 100,000 word chapter. Anyways, sorry that the update came late, I ended up starting work on this super late and it took some time to find the right techniques I wanted to use in the fight. I hope you actually enjoyed the mini fight scene, since it was my first time writing one down. I didn't want Luffy to lose to Zoro because then he'd hand Bonney in and we wouldn't have much of a story, but I also didn't want Zoro to lose because his loss against Mihawk wouldn't be as impactful to him if he lost before that. And also, I find that before the timeskip, Zoro is Luffy's natural weakness and Luffy is a machine that can take a lot of injuries so I think it'd be a stalemate in the end. So I had Bonney interfere just so both characters are kinda preserved. Also, the next arc is Usopp joining, but I don't really have any ideas on changing it, since most of the fighting is against fodder. So I'll probably just have a small recap in the next chapter and we'll head into Baratie.**


	4. The Floating Restaurant!

**It's been a while since the last chapter, like, a week or something. Ahaha… ha… I'm sorry for the delay, I wish I had a reason but I've just procrastinated writing this chapter for a while. I may have gotten burnt out from writing three chapters in three days, I dunno. I'll probably start doing weekly updates, or at least there'll be gaps between updates, since I've started to write a chapter over several days rather than in just a few hours. I'll just get in to answering a review, and then I'll move on to the chapter.**

 **RedDobrasil: Yes, they'll mostly be going in the same sequence since the East Blue, and to an extension the Paradise half of the Grand Line are mostly linear paths. The New World will probably see some deviation since Luffy's a lot more impulsive with his decisions in there. So, it'll probably be bouncing all over the place.**

 **Anyways, onto the new chapter, and please leave reviews. I need something to read so I know if something's bad and if I'm going on the right track.**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: The Floating Restaurant, Baratie!**

Bonney could already feel her day would be along one as she was hearing the sounds of Luffy and their new crewmate bouncing around the ship. Her purple eyes fluttered open as she stood up to stretch herself out of the uncomfortable sleeping position. She had unceremoniously fell asleep against the railing of their new ship after a long night of painting their pirate flag with Luffy. That's right… They had a new ship. Bonney's mind had started roaming through her memories of the previous day.

They had made it on to a new island, after she and Luffy had complained about the lack of food on their boat, where they met a compulsive liar, named Usopp, with too long of a nose to be considered normal. It was almost like that fairy tale she heard told around her home village of the boy whose nose extended every time he told a lie, she mused. Moving her thoughts back on track, her mind wandered off to Luffy's fight with Captain Kuro, who had been masquerading as a butler in the mansion that… Usopp's friend? Maybe girlfriend? She didn't really know their relationship was progressing, but they ended up fighting his crew to save Usopp's village. In normal Luffy fashion, he'd asked -well, more like he and Zoro already decided it - Usopp to join his crew, she'd expected that much to happen since they first talked to each other. She hadn't expected Ussop's… friend-but-bordering-on-girlfriend to gift them a ship, they called it the Going Merry.

Bonney's purple orbs moved along the mast until they settle on their new masterpiece, the pirate flag of the Straw Hat Pirates. It was a rather simple design of a Jolly Roger except it's wearing the trademark straw hat associated with Luffy. Usopp had drawn the outline and left the flag for them to paint, what was supposed to be an hour of painting had extended into the late hours of the night as they both ended up fighting over paint and somehow painted each other more than the flag.

The pink haired girl is brought out of her thoughts by a particularly loud snore from Zoro. She sighed in exasperation, "Jeez, it's like the only thing he's done since joining is sleeping." Bonney walked over to his position and gave him a few well-placed kicks in the shin to wake him up. "Ow! What the hell is wrong with you, woman?!"

Ignoring the way he was talking to her, she took out a map and continued on like she'd done nothing wrong. "I need someone to keep us on course, so you just have to keep going north until you see a weird rock formation."

Through her eyelashes, she could spot him glaring daggers at her before speaking up. "And why the hell can't you get one of the other idiots to do this while I sleep?" Bonney sighed in frustration and put her hands on her hips.

" _Because!"_

"Because is not a valid reason, woman." Seeing that she would not win the argument this way, she pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to reason with the green-haired swordsman.

" _Because…_ Luffy has the attention span of a goldfish and won't pay attention. And I don't trust Usopp to steer after he ran us into something the first time he tried!"

"Yeah? Well, what about you?" The swordsman countered, looking overly content with himself.

" _I_ have to take a shower to wash all this paint off. Besides, the more time it takes us to get to the Grand Line… the more time it takes you to become the greatest swordsman." She grinned as she got his attention. Hook, line… and sinker.

"Fine." Zoro snatched the map out of her hands and walked to the helm. Bonney had paid no further mind to him, however, as her mind was focused on the shower she wanted to take.

She had no idea how big of a mistake she was making.

* * *

Bonney cursed her lack of forethought that led her to not buying any spare clothes while they were at Usopp's village. ' _We even had the money to buy it after nabbing all of Kuro's treasure.'_ She focused on solving the problem, as her savior appeared through the steam of the shower room. On the other side of the room, laid an unused, relatively clean looking t-shirt. She thanked whatever God was watching her right now and put it on her after drying up. It was a tiny bit oversized, but that wasn't a problem for her. She looked over herself in the mirror, finally getting a look at what she was wearing. It was a dark blue t-shirt with the simple design of a black anchor on the front. Deciding to leave her stockings for later, she just slipped her normal shorts on along with her boots and exited the bathroom.

Opening the door, she let her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness and directed her legs to the swordsman currently manning the helm. "Well? Did you see it, Zoro?" The man in question squints his eyes and looks around for a moment. "Not… really."

"You're hopeless… I'll keep watch on the bow then." Bonney let out with a groan, resigning herself to walk over to the other side of the ship.

"Pink haired witch." Zoro muttered to himself, he could've been sleeping or training at this point.

"Huh? Did you say anything, Zoro- _kun_?" He felt a shiver going down his spine at her sickly-sweet tone, rapidly shaking his head in negation.

"I thought so~." Even with her back turned, Zoro could hear the smug grin in her voice. ' _She really is a witch._ '

It didn't take her long to spot the familiar figure of her captain, sitting on the figurehead of the Merry. Apparently, it became his favorite spot on the ship after he tried sitting there once. She shuddered as she remembered the first time he tried sitting there, it ended up with him falling into the water and dragging her along with him. If it wasn't for Zoro, they would've both drowned. Shaking her head, Bonney returned her focus to his seated form, she ran her eyes over his forearms. She was impressed honestly, looking at him now, you'd never say that he was in a fight. It was almost like all of his wounds had disappeared. She cleared her throat to get his attention.

Nothing.

Okay, maybe he hadn't heard her, so she cleared her throat louder.

Still nothing.

Okay, maybe she'd try a different approach. "Luffy?"

She could see him shifting, okay, that was progress at least.

"What's gotten you so down in the dumps?"

She didn't need to look at his face to know he was pouting, "I'm not down in the dumps."

She made a dismissive gesture with her hands, before mentally smacking herself. He couldn't even see her! An awkward silence had drifted between them, Bonney tried to look through her brain to find any conversation.

"Did you fix it?" Bonney's attention to the teen in front of her when she heard his voice cut through the silence.

Ah, right. Luffy's straw hat had been an unfortunate victim of Kuro's indiscriminate attack, which had yielded him the rage of the Straw Hat captain. He had looked so crestfallen after it happened that before she knew what was happening, she had volunteered to fix it.

"No… I'm almost done though, it should be fixed before nightfall." She articulated carefully, Bonney didn't need him to know that she didn't work on it yet.

"Okay! Thanks, Bonney!" The rubber teen's mood had improved considerably from what it was previously, he craned his head around to show his signature grin. Bonney inadvertently felt the corners of her lips twitch upwards and noted that his smile was very infectious. She carefully maneuvered her face so that her hair hid her smile. Confident that she now had complete control over her face, she looked back at Luffy only to find him blinking owlishly at her.

"What?"

"Why are you wearing my shirt?" Bonney's thoughts had slowed to a crawl. It actually made sense, it _was_ a little oversized but not enough to be Zoro's. So that just left either Usopp or Luffy, honestly, she was glad it was Luffy because it would be much easier to deal with him.

She felt heat rise to her cheeks as she swallowed her pride told Luffy of her blunder. "I may or may not have forgotten to bring spare clothes and had to borrow your shirt after showering."

The confusion he felt was reflected on his face. "So… Did you forget or didn't you?" Apparently, she had to admit it and be direct if she wanted him to understand.

"I did." He made a noise of understanding and moved his head back to look out towards the sea.

"You don't… mind?" She had tentatively gotten the words out, afraid that he might say he minded.

"Huh? No, we're friends. You can take anything of mine that you need! Shishishi!" She felt her heart flutter at his admission of her being his friend. This guy… He really was too nice.

Bonney caught something out of the corner of her eye that sent alarm bells ringing in her head. ' _He couldn't have…'_ She ran straight back to where the helm was, seeing the green-haired swordsman looking down at the map she gave him. She walked up behind him and stood up on the tips of her toes to look over his shoulder.

Oh no. The alarm bells were right. Apparently, giving it to Zoro had been the worst mistake of her life.

"Zoro… Who the hell, in their right mind, reads a map upside down?!" The swordsman in question had jumped away from her, his ears ringing.

"What the hell, woman?! Who yells in people's ears?!" Oh, he had the audacity to get mad at her? Halfway through her retort, she was cut off by their newest crew member, Usopp, yelling from the deck. "Oi, you guys! There's a marine ship on our portside!"

Shit. First Zoro got them lost, now there's a marine ship to boot. Why did this keep happening to her? Bonney and Zoro moved almost in synchronized motion, as they both vaulted over the railing to reach the deck.

"Oi, Bonney. Watch out!" Hearing Usopp's warning, Bonney looked up, seeing Luffy's arms stretch towards her until they grabbed her shoulders.

"Gomu Gomu no… Switch!" In almost a blink of an eye, Luffy had barreled forward and she'd been thrown back to his position. She managed to regain her footing and pressed her heels into the ground to slow down. Bonney was about to reprimand Luffy for how he threw her like that when she saw a cannonball speeding to his new position.

"Gomu Gomu no Balloon!" She saw the cannonball impact his inflated body and then redirect, making contact with a… duck looking ship? She held back her reprimands and made a mental note to thank him for saving her life later. She moved her attention back to the marine ship, Luffy could keep redirecting their cannonballs, but their erratic paths wouldn't leave them with a stable counterattack. She grinned as she took note of something that would allow them to escape the marine ship's line of fire.

"Usopp, help me pull the sails up!" With a little difficult, both members had managed to pull the sails until they managed to stop. She smiled as she looked at the end product of her plan, they'd manage to stop right in time so a huge rock had separated them from the marine's line of fire.

"Damn, I didn't even get to fight anyone." Bonney ignored the words coming from the swordsman as she admired her handiwork. She was cut off by one of Luffy's arms shooting out to the hole in that… duck looking ship.

"What are you doing, Luffy? We still have to deal with the marines." She found herself agreeing with Usopp's sentiment, why would Luffy go over there now? What if they were hostile?

"Ah, but you have Zoro."

"It's not the same!"

Bonney could feel that Luffy and Usopp's conversation was going nowhere, so she walked up to her captain. "I'll come with you, you need someone to help you negotiate. And-" She didn't get to finish her sentence as the rubber teen's other arm had wrapped around her and they shot off to the other ship.

"Gomu Gomu no Rocket!"

* * *

They'd crossed over there in seconds, as they approached the hole, he retracted his other arm and threw Bonney slightly into the air, before catching her in a bridal style hold. They landed through the hole and Bonney had flipped out of his hold with the grace of a ballerina.

She was surveying the damage when Luffy's voice suddenly cut through the silence and almost made her jump out of her skin. "Who're you, old man?"

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" She whipped around to look at the person Luffy was talking to, her eyes moved over his form. He looked to be an elderly man, although his hair still appeared to be blonde, he also had a long moustache tied with blue ribbons at the end of it. Her purple orbs looked over the rest of his form, he was wearing a white chef outfit.

"I'm Luffy, the man who will become King of the Pirates!" Bonney resisted the urge to facepalm, he just has to say that. One day they'll meet someone who hates pirates and they'd attack him for it.

"King of the Pirates, eh? That's a lofty goal! I'm Zeff, the head chef of the Baratie." The man, Zeff, had finished off with a laugh.

"Sorry about the mess, old man. There was a cannonball and I accidentally made it fly over here! Shishishi." Bonney was caught between the feeling of frustration and amusement, he was just so… honest. It was a trait that didn't exist in most pirates, and she felt a sliver of admiration towards him for that.

"Oh? That means you'll have to pay for the mess you made." Bonney's brain kicked into overdrive as she mentally calculated the amount of treasure they had. They still needed supplies, and they couldn't waste all of it now.

"We have treasure to pay for that hole, it looks pretty small so it shouldn't be a problem."

Zeff laughed heartily at her statement. Bonney frowned in response, offended. She hadn't said anything funny, why was he laughing at her?

"Little miss, the money we make in one day would be a lot more than your treasure." Bonney was sure her confusion reflected on her face, how was he so sure they didn't have that much treasure?

"How do you know that?"

"We're in the East Blue, not many big shot pirates come around here. So, you're either a weak group of pirates or just starting out. And judging by your friend's enthusiasm to be King, you're just starting out." This guy was smart, he'd analyzed their crew in just one encounter.

"Alright, then how will we pay for this?" Refusing to show that she was impressed, Bonney crossed her arms and looked off to the side, trying to regain control of the conversation.

"I'm glad you asked, little miss. For your punishment, I'll have your friend work in the Baratie…" Bonney mulled over his words, that didn't sound so bad. With some persuasion, she could have Luffy work himself to the bone and they'd be out of there before nightfall. "…For one month!"

 **TO BE CONTINUED.**

* * *

 **Fun fact about this chapter, I'd originally made it so that it covered Baratie and the first part of Arlong Park, but then I thought everything was moving too fast. So, I slowed it down until they got to Baratie and decided to flesh out to have some Bonney and Luffy interaction. I'd like you to review and tell me your thoughts about the chapter, please. Anyways, with that I'll see in the next chapter, which will hopefully come faster than this one did.**


	5. Don Krieg's Pirate Armada!

**reupload because i'm a retard who forgot to add in line breaks oops**

 **you know, to put it into perspective. i rewrote this author's note like 5 times now as the delays kept getting longer. so hi, it's been 6 months since this was updated. procrastination is an issue, yes, feel free to yell at me in the reviews. or don't, that's fine too. thanks for all the people that still favorited the story lately, you guys are the people that motivated me to step all over procrastination.**

 **Anyways. Time for another chapter. I'll get into the reviews and we can start off.**

 **RinneSage726: I actually had no idea about the paragraph thing, which is odd because sometimes I subconsciously did it. By the time this chapter is out, the other 4 will be amended to fix this error. As for descriptions, yeah, they're honestly my weakest point and I'm not quite sure how to fix it, I'll try to get better at it but bear with me here.**

 **RedFistCannon: yes, i agree, this story needs more love and i am 100% not biased at all in saying that. Seriously though, thank you for your kind words. As for the pairing thing, I do love me the good old LuNa and it's one of my favorite pairings (because it's the most innocent and pure love of all time, but really any ship with Luffy is the most innocent and pure love of all time), but I also love the wild pairings that aren't done much. To me it was a toss up between this story, or a Luffy x Koala one where he's part of the Revolutionary Army, since that pairing is almost non-existent. I might do that one in the future or parallel with this, but I'll settle with this for now especially that I missed the deadline.**

 **NeonPhoenix: I'm actually not completely caught up to the One Piece manga, since I've been watching the anime for a long while. And I just recently started it from the beginning, so I don't have the info to tie it in. I'll probably do a weird amalgamation of what I thought her story would be along with a crude version of her current backstory. Also, for the town and Zoro, he's one of the biggest names in the East Blue and very intimidating. Since the story is from the perspective of the Straw Hats, we don't see what normal everyday people think much. But I would imagine people with such a reputation would be feared, you could see in Shells Town where he was held in the marine base that once Luffy said his name everyone hid.**

 **chapter time (take 5) now eyyyy**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Don Krieg's Pirate Armada!**

" _For your punishment, I'll have your friend work in the Baratie… For one month!_ "

Bonney thought he was justified, she wasn't gonna agree or anything, but he was justified. She'd try to lower the amount by negotiations if she could. Luffy was having none of it, though, and spoke up before she could think of a plan.

"Hell no, old man. If I keep working here for one month, when am I gonna get to the Grand Line?"

Zeff had been amused before at the young man's antics, he adjusted his legs under him and his face fell, settling into a fuming glare. "Now you listen here, brat. I'm doing you a favor here, if this young lady's all you got, then you won't last a day in the Grand Line!"

His words may have been important, but Bonney and Luffy stared at his legs, almost in a trance.

"Ahhh! Your leg! I'm sorry!" Luffy's eyes were bulging out of his head while apologizing, as he thought about the damage he did. The older man had apparently lost a leg, and in place of it was a prosthetic pegleg.

Bonney, who had been watching the entire exchange silently, decided to cut in and explain things to Luffy before he overthought everything. "Luffy, it is literally impossible for the old man to have lost a leg and had a prosthetic made _and_ applied in the few seconds it took us to get here from the ship."

Luffy had blinked at her owlishly before his face broke out into a grin, "Ah, I see. You're so smart, Bonney!"

The girl in question had figuratively and literally turned back to the task at hand, she held up two fingers for Zeff to see. "Two weeks, old man."

Zeff had laughed heartily again, "You seriously can't expect me to cut it down in half, I already decided on a number."

Bonney had expected that reply, she just clicked her tongue and grinned. "You didn't let me finish, old man. In exchange to cutting down the amount to half, you'll get double the amount of people working. You can have Luffy do whatever you want, and I could just be a waitress or something!"

This was her winning strategy, if it failed, it'd be impossible for her to think of anything else. Bonney held her breath while the older man was silent, seemingly considering her offer. She crossed her fingers behind her back, that speech may have sounded confident but she was everything that _wasn't_ confident right now.

"Alright, fine, since all the waiters left. You've gotten yourself a deal, you'll be a waitress while your friend over here is a chore boy." Bonney had to fight the urge to openly celebrate, as she let out a sigh of relief.

* * *

The newly hired duo was currently waiting for someone to bring them aprons as part of their "uniform". Bonney was tapping away with her fingers at the railing on the top floor of the Baratie, while Luffy was rocking from side to side in his seated position next to her.

She had lost count of how many taps against the railing she made, if they were punishing her with boredom then they definitely succeeded. She stopped tapping in favor of supporting her head with her hand as she leaned against the railing.

"Hey, Bonney… What do you know about the Grand Line?" She hadn't expected that question, especially from Luffy. She was happy that her boredom was alleviated now, but she had apprehensions about answering that question.

"What brought this on, Luffy? And why are you asking me?" She decided to deflect for now, thinking of a way to answer his questions without seeming too knowledgeable. Monkey D. Luffy may be academically challenged… and lacking in common sense, but he knows how to read people and if she wasn't careful, he could start asking her about things she didn't want to remember.

"It's 'cause that old geezer said we wouldn't last in the Grand Line. And I'm asking you because you said all that smart stuff about Shanks and the New… something." Bonney felt herself stiffen… He wanted to know about the Grand Line and… the _New World_. The grip she had on her head tightened as her eyes stared out to the sea, almost in a daze.

* * *

 _A six-year-old girl with shoulder length pink hair, wearing a dark purple dress that was left in tatters, was currently rocking back and forth in a dark alleyway as she hid from her pursuer. She could hear the cracking of lightning as she kept rocking, which had only served to terrify the young girl more._

 _The girl felt vibrations as loud stomps had been getting closer, sweat had accumulated on her forehead and her breath had gotten shorter. She realized that the air had been getting unbearably hot, which only meant that she had to move now. She couldn't be caught at this point!_

" _Come out now, child. If you give yourself up, I'll let you live for a little. Come out, come out wherever you are, Bonney~" The terrifying voice of her pursuer had cut through the air in a jolly tune._

Flashes of memories went through Bonney's mind.

A nobleman. _"Leave this place, peasant! You're not fit to even lick the scraps of our leftovers."_

A man who towered over her, with an intimidating stature. Looking at her with eyes that bored through her like a hawk, yet they contained an odd warmth. " _Escaping will not solve your problems. In fact, I see more hardship in your future._ "

A ship deck, surrounded by the crowding crew. The large, hulking captain, surrounded by medical equipment, was looking down towards her with an amused grin. " _You've got guts, kid. It's a shame that I don't take daughters in my crew. We'll drop you off somewhere._ "

And finally, guards that were prepared to sacrifice everything. " _We will serve you until the day we die, our Queen."_

* * *

"Bonney? Bonneeeey? Are you okay?"

The pink haired girl was brought back to her senses by Luffy's calls for her. She let out a shaky breath and shook her head, as if to try and literally shake the thoughts out of her head, before she turned her face to Luffy, trying to put him at ease, she gave him a warm smile.

"I'm okay, I just got lost in thought." It wasn't exactly a lie, she _was_ lost in thought, but she didn't want to explain what she was thinking about. Luffy seemed unconvinced for a moment, before he slowly nodded his head.

"So, you wanted to know why the old man thought we wouldn't survive in the Grand Line?" She only got a nod in return, so she continued on. "Well, people call that place The Pirates' Graveyard for a reason. It's full of really, really, _really_ strong people-" She had put emphasis on the really strong part to discourage him from trying to fight anyone they didn't need to in there, but as Luffy's eyes lit up, she knew she had the opposite effect.

"Woo! Strong people!" He yelled enthusiastically, almost bouncing from his seated position, while grinning at her. Bonney felt herself relax, and she gave him a grin of her own.

"Thank you for interrupting me, after I graciously answered the things that _you_ wanted to know." She teased him, only getting a small sorry in return. She made a dismissive hand gesture before continuing her explanation, "It's also 'cause the sea itself isn't normal, the magnetic fields or something are all out of control. So, you could just be sailing normally and all of a sudden a damn storm forms right then and there."

Luffy stared at her blankly for a few seconds before he suddenly pounded his fist into his other palm. "Ah, so it's a mystery sea!"

Bonney had doubled over in laughter after he finished his statement, he looked so serious while saying it that it was hard not to laugh. Luffy frowned at her back and whined, "Bonney~ Don't laugh at me."

She took a moment to compose herself before looking at Luffy's frowning face, "Hey, I'm not laughing at you. It was just so accurate that I laughed… okay, I lied, maybe I did laugh a tiny bit because you looked so serious." Seeing his frown deepen, the pink haired girl huffed before kneeling down in front of him and flicking him in the forehead, she knew he couldn't feel the pain but it was going to emphasize her point.

"You know I'd never disrespect you, you idiot." She left the 'not after what you did for me' unsaid, she knew he'd get it. Luffy rubbed at the spot she flicked by instinct while he looked at Bonney.

"Wait… Didn't you just disrespect me by calling me an idiot?" Bonney could work with this; the situation was back in her control now. She eased her face back into a grin, as she replied, not missing a beat.

"To me, idiot is a term of endearment." She wasn't lying, she'd said the word without any malicious intent behind it.

He pounded his fist into his palm again. "Ah, I see."

Silence had settled over them for a short while, each of them taking in the view of the sea as it extended as far as their eyes could see. To devil fruit users, the sea was the most intimidating thing in the world. It could easily strip your life like it's nothing if you weren't careful, which isn't helped by the fact that the majority of the world was made from the damned thing. Yes, the sea was daunting, terrifying even. But not to the two devil fruit eaters looking from across the railing at the vast azure.

To the two young pirates, the sea symbolized liberation. It was the biggest symbol of freedom in the world, and that's what made it all the more tempting to just forget everything in your life to escape into its embrace. And escape into its embrace they did, with hundreds of people letting go of their past lives and becoming pirates.

The peaceful atmosphere created by the gentle crashing of waves against the Baratie was cut short by the creaking of a door behind them. Bonney had turned just in time to notice a white article being thrown in her direction, managing to instinctively bring her hands up to catch it before the object made contact with her face. She moved the offending article out of her view to see who had thrown it.

"Put these aprons on and get to work." Zeff's amused tone hadn't gone unnoticed by Bonney, if she wasn't stuck here repaying him she would've probably turned him into an old man by now. Well… An old-er man. Bonney sucked in her teeth and tied the article around her waist before looking to her companion to see if he had done the same.

The pink haired girl could only stare as her raven-haired captain was rolling around and trying to take the apron off, only to wrap it more around his head. Bonney could only shake her head as she walked over and unwrapped the mess that her companion had gotten into.

"Well, time to head to work, Captain." For once, Bonney was looking forward to their arrangement. At least there wouldn't be any sudden danger, seeing as her Captain was a problem magnet when he roams free. And how hard could helping out in a restaurant be?

* * *

Bonney cursed her lack of foresight as she laid on her back, staring up at the sky. She should've known that the old man Zeff would've put them through the hardest work in return for messing up his restaurant. Coupled with the fact that Luffy messed up things more than he did right and that meant Bonney was stuck with extra work. Speaking of the straw-hatted boy, she looked to her right and saw him fishing. Well, he looked like he was fishing, but he was bouncing around impatiently waiting for something else to do.

"Aren't you tired, Luffy?" Bonney whined, wondering where the bundle of energy named Luffy got all of that energy from. She'd gotten used to it over the short time she's been with him, even managing to match him with her own energy sometimes. But this was getting too much, it was like a bottomless ravine!

"Shishi! Nope. But I'm bored here, I wanna go on an adventure!" Luffy laughed, while still keeping up the pretense of fishing. Bonney found herself agreeing with him, this place was starting to feel like a nightmare she couldn't escape from. A nightmare of her most hated feeling in life, boredom.

"Would you be interested in lunch, fair mademoiselle?" The pirate duo looked over at the voice coming from direction of the doorway, as a man had spun through it, holding a tray in his hands. Taking a closer look at him, he has blonde hair, styled in a way that covers his right eye. His visible eye, appears to be of a grey-blue color, topped off with an odd eyebrow that forms a spiral at the outer end. As for his clothes, he's wearing a double-breasted suit with a blue shirt and a black tie under it.

He reaches up a hand, removing it from his pocket and places a cigarette on his lips before lighting it and continuing his speech. "Fair lady, my body has been created to serve you with love. Now please do me the honor of accepting this offer of lunch."

Bonney thought he was pretty weird to say all of those things, but she wasn't turning down free lunch. The pink haired girl slowly nodded as he set the tray down in front of her, acting as the epitome of refinement as he slowly removed the cover from the tray. As soon as the food came into view, she pounced on the plate to devour it.

"Sho, who are ya?" Bonney asked while shoveling food into her mouth. The blonde-haired man seemed to stare at her in shock for a moment before his face settled into a grin.

"I'm the sous chef here, name's Sanji. I've been watching you guys screw up in there." Sanji took another drag of his cigarette, as he stared at the two in question. Bonney flushed in embarrassment as she kept shoveling food into her mouth, meanwhile Luffy only took a break from fishing to stretch his hand closer to Bonney's food to steal some of it.

His heist was about to succeed until a giant shadow looming over them had stopped him in tracks. The trio looked to their right at the source of that shadow, which was a giant galleon, almost triple the size of the Baratie. It would seem very threatening, if not for the fact that it looked like it was about to fall apart any second. The hull was destroyed beyond any possible repairs and the sails were tattered to the point that they jolly roger drawn on them was barely recognizable.

Their attention was diverted to a man jumping from the side of the ship onto the deck they were currently on. Landing on the deck, he fell down to his knees while clutching his stomach. "Help, please. I'm starving… I need food." His voice was coarse and raspy, unable to raise his voice to speak louder.

Sanji took a drag of his cigarette and stood up, slowly disappearing back into the doorway. After a few seconds had passed, he walked back onto the deck, carrying another plate of food and set it on the floor in front of the starving man. "I made seconds just in case you needed to eat more, fair lady. But looks like he needs it more."

The starving man made a grab for the plate and started to eat, trying to stave off his starvation. "Thanksh sho much for this!"

The starving man had put his plate aside after finishing the food. "Guess I should introduce myself after eating all this food, huh? It's Gin." Gin adjusted the headband on his head as he bowed his head forward to Sanji.

Sanji made a dismissal motion with his hand as he took another drag from his cigarette. "Don't mention it, you were starving, after all."

Luffy was watching the scene in uncharacteristic silence as his eyes lit up at the chef, when Bonney looked over at him, she recognized the look in his eyes. It was the same look he'd given her before making her – _forcefully dragging her –_ part of his crew. Though he seemed content to just steal her food again now before bringing that up, considering he was almost going to succeed before he was interrupted, Bonney settled on pretending not to see his snaking hand.

As soon as his hand had finally touched Bonney's food, they heard a crashing sound coming from their left, on the deck. The source of the crashing noise was the impact of a bulky man, covered with an extravagant coat. Beneath his feet, the wood of the deck was splintering from the impact of his weight. The figure slowly stood up and start swaying as he walked towards the door to the Baratie.

Bonney and Sanji looked to Gin in confusion, while Luffy was scowling from being interrupted again while trying to steal Bonney's food. Gin was already ready to answer their confusion, "That's Don Krieg… My captain."

Don Krieg. Bonney vaguely remembered hearing about him, he was given the epithet of Pirate Fleet Captain. She hadn't kept track of how many ships he had under his command, but given the fact that they only returned with one ship in that condition. His epithet wasn't that fitting anymore, she laughed inwardly.

Any replies were cut off as the aforementioned pirate was knocked through the doors onto the deck, a voice inside yelling out at him to never come back. Seeing his captain be knocked onto the deck, Gin stood up and ran towards him. "Don, are you alright?!"

Don Krieg could only croak out simple words. "Starving… Food… Help…"

Sanji had slowly started to get up, to the confusion of the two rookie pirates. As he passed by Don Krieg and Gin on his way to the Baratie, rolling up the sleeves of his suit slowly. "You wanted food, right? Guess I'll get to it myself."

 **TO BE CONTINUED.**

* * *

 **this is probably not as long as you expected the grand return to be but i was running out of ideas to make this longer without feeling too dragged out. so i thought this was a good stopping point for now. hopefully i manage to get the next chapter out before a month passes, or 6. anyways, a slower chapter this time since i started to build up bonney's backstory xd which like i said is a weird amalgamation since i need to move her from the south blue where she grew up all the way over to the east blue where she is now**


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